The Afghan Scam: The Untold Story of Why the U.S. Is Bound to Fail in Afghanistan

[Orwellian_Ghost]

The Afghan Scam
The Untold Story of Why the U.S. Is Bound to Fail in Afghanistan
By Ann Jones

The first of 20,000 to 30,000 additional U.S. troops are scheduled to arrive in Afghanistan next month to re-win the war George W. Bush neglected to finish in his eagerness to start another one. However, "winning" the military campaign against the Taliban is the lesser half of the story.

Going into Afghanistan, the Bush administration called for a political campaign to reconstruct the country and thereby establish the authority of a stable, democratic Afghan central government. It was understood that the two campaigns -- military and political/economic -- had to go forward together; the success of each depended on the other. But the vision of a reconstructed, peaceful, stable, democratically governed Afghanistan faded fast. Most Afghans now believe that it was nothing but a cover story for the Bush administration's real goal -- to set up permanent bases in Afghanistan and occupy the country forever.

Whatever the truth of the matter, in the long run, it's not soldiers but services that count -- electricity, water, food, health care, justice, and jobs. Had the U.S. delivered the promised services on time, while employing Afghans to rebuild their own country according to their own priorities and under the supervision of their own government -- a mini-Marshall Plan -- they would now be in charge of their own defense. The forces on the other side, which we loosely call the Taliban, would also have lost much of their grounds for complaint.

Instead, the Bush administration perpetrated a scam. It used the system it set up to dispense reconstruction aid to both the countries it "liberated," Afghanistan and Iraq, to transfer American taxpayer dollars from the national treasury directly into the pockets of private war profiteers. Think of Halliburton, Bechtel, and Blackwater in Iraq; Louis Berger Group, Bearing Point, and DynCorp International in Afghanistan. They're all in it together. So far, the Bush administration has bamboozled Americans about its shady aid program. Nobody talks about it. Yet the aid scam, which would be a scandal if it weren't so profitable for so many, explains far more than does troop strength about why, today, we are on the verge of watching the whole Afghan enterprise go belly up.

What's worse, there's no reason to expect that things will change significantly on Barack Obama's watch. During the election campaign, he called repeatedly for more troops for "the right war" in Afghanistan (while pledging to draw-down U.S. forces in Iraq), but he has yet to say a significant word about the reconstruction mission.

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http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175019/ann_jones_the_afghan_reconstruction_boondoggle

[arcadian]

1. This is evidence of a systemic collapse of the American way.

Predatory capitalism across the board. Our system is completely broken. We need a new paradigm, just fixing the old way ain't gona cut it and if that is what Obama has in mind he will fail miserably.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

4. Yes indeed

[theoldman]

2. Our government needs to take a lesson from the Taliban.

They provided security from the war lords. Hard to believe that the Taliban were the good guys. Read a book "Imperial Hubris" for the straight story.

[Ghost Dog]

3. Is it not possible that Soviets were the (relatively) "good guys"

(eg. food, work, education, a degree of 'enlightenment' for all, including women...(and no warlords or capitalist predators in power))???